Thanks for the post, anonymous (please post at least your first name and maybe a country of origin) - I know the synth voice is kinda annoying, but she works cheap, and I don't have that "radio announcer" voice anymore. I'll see what I can do to get a jingle, though...I like that idea...and maybe boost synth-lady's volume so you can hear on the subway.

I heard about the "daddycast" from the Podfinder show. I've been listening since. I look forward to the show. My son who just turned four also listens and asks who the kid is in the beginning of your show. So you know he's listening too. :-)

We're American but my kid was born in Taiwan where we still live now. He doesn't meet many other kids who speak English fluently so it was funny for him to hear your kid's voice on the intro for your show.

I listen to the show in my car and my kid pipes in everyonce in a while to ask questions about what you are talking about.

I think the "daddycast" name is a bit more appropriate since you don't really discuss babywipe uses much but hey, a daddycast by any other name would sound just as good.

Hello! I'm a brand new Ipod owner as of last week and have started randomly trying out some podcasts. My husband bought me a nano as an early baby present (so I can be a cool mom!) - we're expecting twins in march. That's how I started listening to your podcast.

I have enjoyed your show so far (only listened to a few episodes), and was interested to hear you are a software engineer, since I am as well. My husband and brother-in-law are also, and we talk about the "women in computer science" issue quite a bit. I have two main comments on your earlier thoughts:

One - we talk A LOT about the abundance of bad engineers, and especially in a strong market how hard it can be to find anyone good. So, if say 10% of all engineers are good, and you interview 30 women - you should only find 3 who are worthy. But when interviewing 200 men - you should find 20 who are worthy. Combine that with the fact that in a good market most people looking for a job are not the cream of the crop (because in theory their employers are keeping them happy) - and it is easy to see how the 3 women you should have found were missing from the group.

I would be interested to know how many, if any, of the men left the interview in the same way the women did. (I'll also say here that in my opinion men, particularly in this field, are much more likely to "embellish" their talents and try to fake it through an interview than women are).

Two - the root of the problem is that less than 15% of your applicants were women. Which is because less than 30% of college CS grads are women (I think it's less than that now). I really believe some of this is because girls are nudged towards the liberal arts, but there's also a smaller overall percentage of women in CS than there are in the sciences in general. My current theory on this is high schools don't offer many CS classes and if they do, they are elective (and aren't "cool" for girls to take) - so by college it's almost too late. The only reason I ended up in the field was because a college professor cornered me and convinced me to consider it.

I don't think society is trying to hold women down - I just think we're not actively trying to push them into CS and all of the sciences. But I think we have a bigger problem right now trying to make sure all high school grads can read and write!!

I agree with you on the cell phone issue. I have seen plenty of adults who can't drive with one, why only ban kids. And why ban only cell phones? How about just rolling it all into a distracted driving law and then start enforcing it?